Tea Party

The current government shut down over the Affordable Healthcare Act speaks directly to issues found in the nation’s beginnings. Among the many ironies of Tea Party foolishness is that while its adherents are enemies of federalism and shape minor deities of the nation’s founders, the nation’s founders very purposefully opted for federalism. This post from [...]

. It is such a given so little reflected upon by its participants and observers, that political life leads to cynicism, that even when reflection periodically takes place, much is lost in the glare. Consider in this regard the already commonplace observation that in clambering back atop the “fiscal cliff” on Tuesday, the GOP-controlled House [...]

. While the general media roll out of Paul Ryan as VP pick focuses on the GOP’s chosen narrative of Ryan as “smart” and “courageous” thinker about budgetary and Medicare matters, many more careful economists, like Paul Krugman, are offering the necessary corrective in even that area. Krugman reminds us that Ryan has never crunched the numbers, [...]

. My post on “Rush Limbaugh and the Free Market of Speech” drew a comment from JP that is thoughtful and challenging, and I think my responding to it at length can deepen the exploration and understanding of what opponents of Limbaugh are doing in the media campaign against him and of what it is [...]

. Today is a good day to reiterate the essential nature of the Tea Party and contemporary GOP political impulse in practice. As even Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell calls on House Republicans to compromise and pass the two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, we need understand not how, but why we got here. What we [...]

Among the many mistaken and, frankly, repellent notions of today’s Right is its nearly constant invocation of the nation’s origins and its founders as somehow ideologically ancestral only to them. Here is a very fine reminder that the truth is very different, from Ron Chernow’s op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times. Op-Ed Contributor – The [...]

from David Corn, Mother Jones, Confessions of a Tea Party Casualty During his primary campaign, Inglis repeatedly encountered enraged conservatives whom he couldn’t—or wouldn’t—satisfy. Shortly before the runoff primary election, Inglis met with about a dozen tea party activists at the modest ranch-style home of one of them. Here’s what took place: I sat down, [...]

Political perception is today enabled by enhanced technologies such as old high school friends rediscovered on Facebook who alert one to a Machine Gun Shoot and Lobster Dinner sponsored by the Pemi-Baker Valley Republican Committee of New Hampshire. I’m not sure why this caught my attention. They used to have machine gun shoots in Barack [...]

From The New York Times/CBS. My quick hits. Tea party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, tend to be Republican, white, male, and married, and their strong opposition to the Obama administration is more rooted in political ideology than anxiety about their personal economic situation Well, knock me over. And while [...]

All previous rounds in this series can be found at the right of the horizontal drop-down menu above. Comments are closed on this post here at the sad red earth and should be offered at ShrinkWrapped instead. The Open Mind VI: The Last Word I appreciate Jay’s admission of insufficient diligence in making his allegations [...]

I here respond to ShrinkWrapped’s initial offering in round 6. All previous rounds in this series can be found at the right of the horizontal drop-down menu above. I played little league baseball. I hit for average, still more for power. I was even on a couple of championship teams. After the second championship, our [...]

ShrinkWrapped offers his opening salvo, an attempt at a roundhouse haymaker, in round 6. All Previous Posts in this series can be found at the right of the horizontal drop-down menu above. As usual, for SW’s contributions posted at this site, comments here are closed and should be left at ShrinkWrapped. The Open Mind VI: [...]

A Face of Health Care Reform Julia and I have a very dear friend who, post divorce, and confronting the vagaries of life with determination – he began, this semester, an educational program aimed at a new career – has health insurance for his young daughter, but none for himself. A week ago he began [...]

Shadow Play Julia and I were riding up in the big cab of the motorhome. I was driving, she was taking notes, and we were both looking out through the panoramic window on America that has always been the continually renewable charge – along with that of just packing up our home and taking it, [...]